Andoni Iraola press conference: Arsenal vs Bournemouth

Iraola confirmed Junior Kroupi and Alex Jimenez returned from the worldwide break with niggles, however each are “fully recovered and ready to go”.

Justin Kluivert and Lewis Cook are the membership’s solely “injured players” proper now. Cook is “taking more time than expected” to return to motion after struggling a setback, whereas Kluivert is speeding to return again earlier than the World Cup, however he is not prepared but.

Julio Soler is in first-team coaching, however he is not prepared “to play a lot of minutes”, nonetheless, Tyler Adams and Ben Gannon-Doak have used the time without work to “put themselves back into contention”, leaving his squad “in a good place” going into the ultimate stretch of the season.

He added: “I will have to make difficult decisions this weekend because there will probably be more than 20 players ready to travel.”

The three-week break has been “a strange one”, nonetheless, it has given him an opportunity to work with the gamers coming back from harm. He added: “We will see if we are ready. We should be fresh and definitely motivated, though, because we are facing Arsenal, away from home, in a big game.”

When requested about travelling to St Mary’s Stadium to observe the Gunners in FA Cup motion, he replied: “It’s something I like to do. I used to do it a lot when I was living in Madrid. The feeling you get from watching a game in-person is different to watching on TV. It gave me more information.”

On whether or not now is an efficient second to play Mikel Arteta’s aspect, after their Carabao Cup closing and FA Cup quarter-final defeats: “There’s never a good moment to face them. They are always very difficult to beat. They changed their team a bit for those cup games, but recovered their starting XI for Sporting and took a massive win. I expect the best Arsenal.”

Bournemouth will want “something special” to beat the league leaders, so he referred to as for his gamers to “be focused, be disciplined and make them earn everything” at Emirates Stadium.

It is a “strange feeling” to have gone 11 Premier League video games unbeaten, having drawn 5 of these video games in a row, however it’s nonetheless an opportunity to “break a club record”. He added: “For us, it’s the fact that things are so tight and one goal or two points can make a huge difference to the table.”

He has spoken to the membership about his future now, however defined: “I’m sorry, I don’t have any news for you. There has been no change on that side of things.”